Our Vision for Taylor Square - A Darlinghurst Town Square
In 2016 we launched our vision for Darlinghurst’s Taylor Square. In 2022 the City of Sydney endorsed and publically backed our vision, now all we need is the the Justice Department to finish their review and give the court building to the Nation Art School and the grass forecourt to the community.
Bold new vision for Oxford St and Taylor Square
STAR OBSERVER STAFF WRITERS - AUGUST 31, 2016
THE Darlinghurst Business Partnership (DBP) might be the knight in shining armour for Sydney’s fledgling Oxford St precinct as it unveils its ideas to revitalise the area.
The DBP’s plans were unveiled today after lengthy consultations with relevant stakeholders and now it wants to hear what you think of its ideas.
The partnership said it is clear that development will come to Oxford Street and if it is managed creatively and effectively it believed it does not need to “spell the end of the City of Sydney’s last arts, culture and entertainment precinct”.
“Sydney has suffered from a lack of coherent planning for the 24-hour, globalised gig-economy that major cities are moving towards. Laws have been made reactively and on the fly,” DBP president Stephan Győry said.
“We are not anti-development; in fact we expect and welcome it. We want to ensure quality development that enhances our local culture, rather than displaces it.”
The DBP has called on the NSW State Government to declare and legislate a specially designated ‘Oxford Street, Darlinghurst: Arts, Culture & Innovation Precinct’.
“The Act should explicitly recognise the economic and societal value of arts & and culture and the businesses involved in the sector,” the DBP said in a statement.
“It must be predicated on the 24 hour rhythms of a true 21st Century city with a comprehensive, multi-agency plan to protect, foster and develop the night-time economy.”
The DBP has also suggested a raft of other changes it believed would change “Oxford Street a High Street of international acclaim” including; removal of clearways, impose a 40kph speed limit and a Bondi Light Rail.
“A renewal of Taylor Square could include the public reclamation of the Supreme Court building and the opening of its forecourt as well as a complete redesign of Taylor Square South,” the DBP suggested.
“These changes must be planned in close cooperation with local stakeholders: the LGBTI community, residents, businesses and the City of Sydney.”
Darlinghurst Law Courts to become centre of new cultural precinct
Sydney Morning Herald - By Linda Morris, April 3, 2022 — 5.00amThe Darlinghurst Law Courts would become the centre of a new cultural precinct opening the historic sandstone landmark to Oxford St and the National Art School under plans foreshadowed by the City of Sydney.
Town Hall also wants to establish special trusts to purchase rehearsal and studio spaces for artists locked out of Sydney by spiralling rents, similar to a model adopted by London.
City of Sydney concept plans for the Darlinghurst Law Courts. SUPPLIED
Arresting the exodus of creatives out of the CBD is a key objective of Lord Mayor Clover Moore in the city’s 2050 vision released Friday.
Opening the Law Courts in Darlinghurst to Oxford Street would give the National Art School a new front door, connect it to the community and elevate the historic complex to a major cultural destination, Clr Moore said. “It would also create much-needed public open space for the local community.”
A concept design, commissioned by the city, shows a new eastern entrance leading to the National Art School, the law courts’ lawns integrated into an open landscaped plaza with an open-sided shelter for events and performances.
But ultimately the law courts would need to shift out. The courts’ state heritage listing also extends to its convict-built sandstone fence limiting some of the city’s options.
The design was drawn up by JMD Design and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, the same design team working on a new masterplan to redevelop NAS’s home at the historic Darlinghurst Goal behind the law courts.
An artist’s impression of the new entrance and public square at the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo, a suburb the city wants to become a hub of innovation and design. SUPPLIED
The National Art School, the alma mater of Margaret Olley, James Gleeson, and Max Dupain, secured a 45-year lease in 2019.
Its multi-million dollar masterplan expansion, which requires NSW budget approval, provides for double-height studio and gallery spaces under its unique model of small atelier-based classes and intensive tuition.
NAS’s chief executive Steven Alderton said he would like to see some kind of entry to the art school from the main thoroughfares around Darlinghurst Road.
“As well we would like to be able to do something with the law courts into the future, but that is not for us to decide. We would put our hand up as a major arts tenant on-site to see how we can make art accessible for more people as a 21st-century art school.”
He said the key to revitalising Sydney was repopulating the increasingly gentrified inner-city suburbs of Kings Cross, Darlinghurst, and Paddington with artists, musicians, and other creatives.
“From my perspective the most exciting thing we can do for urban renewal is to bring artists back talking about art, making art. It’s the people that make a suburb or community, not buildings.
“Certain entities would like to see a quiet suburban Darlinghurst. We need to be an energetic, vibrant arts-led city where we can enjoy our 24-hour economy with arts important to that rather than watching TV in an inner-city apartment.”
Apart from opening up NAS and the Law Courts, council wants to establish an innovation and design precinct in Pyrmont and Ultimo, a performance precinct in Kings Cross, and a 24-hour precinct in Alexandria.
Warehouses in Alexandria are considered ideal for design, production and manufacturing, experimental art spaces, and late-night venues.
These spaces could be secured using Creative Land Trusts, not-for-profit landholders that acquire and create property for creative and cultural purposes, the council’s strategy says.
London’s Creative Land Trust has secured its third property and wants to create 1000 new artist studio spaces within five years.
At last count four years ago, the creative industries employed 6.5 per cent of the CBD’s total workforce in 33,000 jobs, across 1,800 businesses.